Yasmin Philips

About Yasmin Philips

Yasmin Philips is a Community Mental Health Nurse in the North East London Foundation NHS Trust (NELFT)

The Trust is leading on the national multi-centre Open Dialogue pilot that seeks to transform mental health care in the UK by working with a person’s family and social networks as part of a holistic approach.

Yasmin is part of the Dialogue First team – the first NHS non crisis service to use an Open Dialogue response.

Areas of interest

Open Dialogue

Self Enquiry

Family

More Info

About Yasmin

Yasmin Philips is a Community Mental Health Nurse in the North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT)

The Trust is leading on the national multi-centre Open Dialogue pilot that seeks to transform mental health care in the UK by using a fast response network approach.

Yasmin was the first full time psychiatric nurse using an Open Dialogue approach.

Open Dialogue is a model of mental health care pioneered in Finland that that involves a consistent family and social network approach where all healthcare staff receive training in family therapy and related psychological skills. All treatment is carried out via whole system/network meetings which always include the patient.

The Open Dialogue approach is a different approach to much of mental health care in the UK, but it has been discussed for several years with interest by several NHS Trusts around the country.

Open Dialogue was pioneered in Finland and has since has since been taken up in a number of countries around the world, including much of the rest of Scandinavia, Germany and several states in America.

Some of the results so far from nonrandomised trials are striking. For example, 72 per cent of those with first episode psychosis treated via an Open Dialogue approach returned to work or study within two years, despite significantly lower rates of medication and hospitalisation compared to treatment as usual.

Yasmin has suspended the “treatment as usual” she was initially trained in, and says learning about Open Dialogue has transformed both her professional and personal relationships.

She works in the NELFT Dialogue First team where all staff have been trained in Open Dialogue – the first to be trained in the NHS. This includes psychiatrists, therapists, nurses, and support workers.

All staff are trained to a foundation level qualification in family therapy and are registered with the Academy of Peer-Supported Open Dialogue. The training involves aspects of family therapy as well as mindfulness and other approaches.